Award for forward looking IT

South Worcestershire councils are celebrating after their IT shared service won an award for their online service developments.

The Tech Success Awards recognised the shared service for their work on open source technology. This was largely because of the new systems which mean when a request for a particular service is made online it can automatically go into the back office system and work takes place.

The judges commended the South Worcestershire ICT Shared Service's development work on enabling customer self-service transactions for Malvern Hills, Wychavon and Worcester City Councils. The judges said South Worcestershire beat both the commercial and government competition because they had a clear focus on customers, were committed to saving money, embraced open source technology and had seamlessly blended technologies together to deliver a better experience for customers.

A good example of this is when a customer previously reported a missed bin collection the request would be raised as an e-mail, have to be inputted into a system by a member of staff, would then go off and only after that would action be taken. Now when a resident reports a missed bin online the system automatically raises the issue in the system and the bin is collected.

Mac Chivers, ICT Shared Service Manager said "We're really pleased to have been recognised for our IT developments. We still have a way to go, but we're committed to not only providing a slick, easy to use system for the customer but also providing efficiencies that mean we can make essential savings."

The team are now looking at improving a whole host of other systems and will soon start to look at the most used online service – planning.

Mac continued "We have built-in customer feedback to our developments and some workshops have already taken place with residents, partners and staff on the new planning system. We want even more feedback though and we would love it if residents could get in touch and share their views regardless of their IT abilities. Getting feedback will help us to get the best online systems for everyone."

Anyone interested in giving their views on online systems should get in touch to register their interest for future consultations by calling Emma Wild 01386 565102 or emma.wild@wychavon.gov.uk